There is a real unsatisfied need in hospitals and nursing homes for an apparatus for collecting waste odors emanating from bed pans. These odors are unpleasant for both patients and staff. Although these waste odors are not common with most patients, their incidence with particular patients is common and severe. What is needed is a portable apparatus which could be moved from room to room where needed. Such an apparatus should be able to be used in existing conventionally designed hospital and nursing home facilities.
There is also a real unsatisfied need particularly in hospitals and nursing homes for a portable apparatus which could be added to existing toilet facilities to better and more directly ventilate odors from those toilets. It would be particularly desirable if such an apparatus could be used in conjunction with an existing toilet having a conventionally mounted seat. Most apparatuses used to better and more directly ventilate odors from existing toilets mandate that the seat of the toilet be raised on its hinges. Not only does this require a relatively substantial and expensive intake ring which is positioned beneath the toilet seat (such a ring must support a full user's weight), but it also requires the mounting of the ring and the consequent sub-optimal height of the toilet seat.